Bill H.645

An Act relative to the use of computer-adaptive assessments in K-12 education

By Representatives Kelcourse of Amesbury and Kilcoyne of Northborough, a petition (accompanied by bill, House, No. 645) of James M. Kelcourse, Meghan Kilcoyne and others relative to the use of computer-adaptive assessments in public schools. Education.

Section 1.  Section 1 of Chapter 69 of the General laws, as appearing in the 2016 Official Edition, is hereby amended by striking out, in lines 13-17, the words “an effective mechanism for monitoring progress toward those goals and for holding educators accountable for their achievement.” and inserting in place thereof the following:-

“an effective mechanism, such as a computer-adaptive assessment, for monitoring the actual progress of individual students’ mastery through the various K-12 learning standards in English, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies, which mechanism seeks to identify, on an annual basis, the learning standards students likely have already mastered and those which they haven’t, for the purposes of identifying all students’ authentic growth, ensuring their continuous progress through those learning standards, identifying directly the actual level of each student’s learning readiness in the public classrooms of the Commonwealth, and of holding educators more accurately and fairly accountable through such authentic measure of students’ achievement and growth.”

Section 2.  Section 1I of Chapter 69 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2016 Official Edition, is hereby amended by replacing the fourth sentence of the second paragraph with the following sentence:-

“Such instruments shall be criterion referenced, assessing which academic standards described in this chapter students are meeting.”

Section 3.  This act shall take effect July 1, 2021.